Isolated Javanese Community Celebrates Founders

On the fourteenth day of the month-long festival, the Tenggerese throw offerings of food and livestock into the active Mount Bromo volcano

The Tenggerese people, an isolated community on the island of Java that primarily identifies as Hindu, is celebrating the festival of Yadnya Kasada this month.

The festival honors the 15th century princess Roro Anteng and her husband Joko Seger, said to be the founders of the community. According to legend, the couple asked the Gods for children and were granted 24 children on the condition that the 25th be thrown into the volcano–Mount Bromo–as a sacrifice.